Europe's second largest country has evolved further since the 1996 edition without the subtitle. Before tracing Ukraine's convoluted road to independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991, Magocsi (history and political science, U. of Toronto) sets the geographic and ethnolinguistic stage and multiple viewpoints on the land's history: Russian, Soviet, Polish, and Ukrainian. The volume is organized by pre-Kievan, Kievan, Lithuanian-Polish-Crimean, Cossack state, Russian Empire rule, Austrian Empire rule, and Nazi occupation periods; nationalist movement struggles; and economic, political, and social developments since attaining independence, but not ipso facto a unified identity. The book features 46 maps, demographic tables, the Ukrainian Declaration of Independence, and a guide to further reading. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)